1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining the pitch of notes and indicating a standard pitch reference in the manufacture and tuning of musical instruments and a display for indicating the accuracy relative to perfect pitch of notes generated by musical instruments.
2. Background Art
Microprocessor-based pitch analyzers and tuning aids have attempted to make the art of instrument tuning a simple endeavor, but unfortunately for various reasons have not demonstrated their usefulness to musicians as measured by the overwhelming market share currently held by analog and strobe tuners.
Generally, analog tuners contain a phase locked loop set to concert pitch of the desired note to be tuned. Upon the application of a tone or signal, an error voltage is produced by the voltage-controlled-oscillator in the phase locked loop which drives a meter movement indicating the pitch error. Strobe tuners contain a stepper motor that spins an attached marked disc at a predetermined speed, so that when a tone or signal is applied, neon lights are cycled on and off at the frequency of the applied signal. The lights visually appear to cause the markings on the spinning disc to rotate left if the applied signal is flat and to rotate right if the applied signal is sharp, or to be stationary if concert pitch is applied.
These devices have shortcomings in that the user/operator is required to have prior knowledge of the note to be tuned, with the user/operator presetting a selector switch to the desired note to be tuned. Another shortcoming of these devices is the visual presentation of the pitch error. A strobe tuner will only indicate that an applied tone or signal is either flat, sharp, or exactly concert pitch. This makes relative measurements between instruments difficult if not impossible. The analog tuner meter movement is only limited to accuracy around the midpoint of the meter movement and determining pitch error accuracy to less than four one hundredths of a semitone is impossible, thus making relative measurements between instruments very difficult. Additionally, the lack of input tone or signal filtering can render both of these devices useless when the applied tone or signal contains high amplitude odd harmonics such as those issued by a trombone which contains high third and fifth order harmonics that are higher in amplitude than that of the fundamental. The fundamental and the associated harmonics have an additive effect when developed into an electronic signal. When the odd harmonics of the applied tone or signal possess amplitudes higher than the fundamental, any tuning device without proper filtering will be deceived into perceiving that the applied tone or signal is either a third or a fifth of the applied pitch above the fundamental.
Microprocessor-based tuners have addressed some of the aforementioned issues quite successfully. U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,609 to Warrender, U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,506 to Holliman, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,697 to Roses describe methods for determining the octave and the note of an unknown applied tone or signal without user/operator intervention. Additionally, all three devices support some sort of input filtering, but all three of these types of microprocessor-based tuning aids suffer from a combination of flaws that can individually or collectively cause a very serious problem relating to the readability of the pitch error indication that has kept these tuners from becoming "the state-of-the-art" for instrument tuning.